Today at noon, the next stage of the 2020 election is set to take place.
Twenty individuals from every corner of Pennsylvania will gather in Harrisburg to cast their votes for president of the United States, on behalf of the 3,458,229 voters who cast their vote for President-Elect Joe Biden.Â
They are the commonwealthâs presidential electors, appointed by the winning campaign to fulfill the duties laid out in Article II Section 1 of the Constitution, as well as the Twelfth Amendment, and codified in federal law.
And just as COVID-19 changed so many traditions this year, the meeting of Pennsylvaniaâs Electoral College is no different. Instead of convening at the Capitol in the chamber of the state House of Representatives for an ornate ceremony filled with pomp and circumstance, this yearâs gathering will take place in the Forum Auditorium, across from the Harrisburg Capitol Complex.Â
Amid a raging pandemic and simmering post-election tensions, 20 Democratic Electoral College appointees are scheduled to gather in the state Capitol on Monday at noon to cast Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
“I’m definitely looking forward to it even under these stressful times with the pandemic,” said Allegheny County resident Nancy Patton Mills, the chairwoman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party and the state Electoral College delegation.
Watch live: Pennsylvania Electoral College casts votes
While the electors usually meet in the state Senate chamber along with legislative leaders and guests, Mills said this year’s event will be pared down because of the pandemic.
J.D. Prose, USA TODAY Network - PA State Capitol Bureau
With President Donald Trump and other Republican elected officials continuing to question former Vice President Joe Biden’s unofficial victory in Pennsylvania, attention is turning to the state’s 20 electoral votes and the people who have been picked to cast them.
Electoral College schedule
In Pennsylvania, each party s nominee chooses their Electoral College electors, and the winning candidate’s party submits its list to the governor to be certified.
The electors will cast their votes for president on Dec. 14 in Harrisburg, and that result will then be sent to Congress by Dec. 23, said Kermit Roosevelt, a constitutional law professor at the University of Pennsylvania.